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Associations between children's family environment, spontaneous brain oscillations, and emotional and behavioral
João Ricardo Sato1,2,3,4,5, Claudinei Eduardo Biazoli6,7, Giovanni Abrahão Salum8,9
1Center of Mathematics, Computation, and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, Av. dos Estados, 5001, Bairro Bangu, Santo André, SP, CEP 09210-580, Brazil. joao.sato@ufabc.edu.
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Childhood family environment impacts lifelong mental health via neurodevelopment. This study links family coherence and conflict to brain activity patterns (fALFF) in children, affecting emotional and behavioral outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Child Psychology
- Mental Health Research
Background:
- Childhood family environment significantly influences long-term mental health.
- These effects are hypothesized to involve alterations in neurodevelopmental trajectories.
- Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) offers a window into brain activity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between family environment quality (coherence, conflict) and a specific fMRI metric, fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), in children.
- To explore if brain regions affected by family environment, as measured by fALFF, correlate with behavioral and emotional problems.
- To examine the relationship between neural activity patterns and mental health outcomes in pediatric populations.
Main Methods:
- Utilized resting-state fMRI data from a cohort of 655 children and adolescents aged 6-15 years.
- Assessed family environment quality through measures of coherence and conflict.
- Analyzed local spontaneous oscillatory neural activity using the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) metric.
Main Results:
- Positive correlation found between family environment quality and fALFF in the left temporal pole.
- Negative correlation identified between family environment quality and fALFF in the right orbitofrontal cortex.
- Increased fALFF in the temporal pole associated with fewer behavioral/emotional problems; increased fALFF in orbitofrontal cortex linked to more problems.
Conclusions:
- Childhood family environment quality is associated with distinct patterns of spontaneous brain activity (fALFF) in specific brain regions.
- These neural activity patterns, influenced by family environment, show differential associations with the incidence of behavioral and emotional problems in children.
- Findings suggest that fALFF may serve as a neural marker linking family experiences to child mental health outcomes.
Abstract:
The family environment in childhood has a strong effect on mental health outcomes throughout life. This effect is thought to depend at least in part on modifications of neurodevelopment trajectories. In this exploratory study, we sought to investigate whether a feasible resting-state fMRI metric of local spontaneous oscillatory neural activity, the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), is associated with the levels of children's family coherence and conflict. Moreover, we sought to further explore whether spontaneous activity in the brain areas influenced by family environment would also be associated with a mental health outcome, namely the incidence of behavioral and emotional problems. Resting-state fMRI data from 655 children and adolescents (6-15 years old) were examined. The quality of the family environment was found to be positively correlated with fALFF in the left temporal pole and negatively correlated with fALFF in the right orbitofrontal cortex. Remarkably, increased fALFF in the temporal pole was associated with a lower incidence of behavioral and emotional problems, whereas increased fALFF in the orbitofrontal cortex was correlated with a higher incidence.